When I first walked in the door in February 2006, I knew then that I wanted
to do this season. To me, there wasn’t a question…I knew this must happen. As Artistic Director,
I was the first to bring in themes to our seasons - the second season I was
here we did a “Disney” season and the third year we did a “Going Green” season,
and then we did our “Rodgers and Hammerstein” season, and last season was our
18th year so we did a whole Jewish themed season, which had never
been done here before. They’ve been around for 18 years and they’ve never
done a Jewish-themed season? And it takes the “Goi” to put it
together!? [laughs] I guess people just don’t think about
that. And then, of course, last season was our tribute to the La Jolla
Playhouse and then this season we walk into Ms. Streisand.

While I’ve wanted to do this for some time, I didn’t know exactly which
shows I wanted to do. We looked at On
a Clear Day You Can SeeForever
and we looked at I Can Get It For You
Wholesale. So I had to weight things out in terms of what was going
to sell tickets, as well as what the kids would garner from it. I
actually wrote to the Streisand Foundation and asked if they would partner with
us for the season and they were very generous in saying “we are so honored that
you’re doing this, thank you for using her name and paying tribute.” I’ve
also invited her out to see the shows in our season … like she’s really gonna
come! [laughs] But one can hope.

I’ve been such a Streisand fanatic my whole life. From growing up in
rural Missouri, my parents were a little backwoods and a little redneck-y, and
I grew up in a double wide trailer. I was the first person to graduate
high school in my entire family and I was the first person to ever think of
leaving Missouri. So I remember listening to Barbara Streisand as a 14
year old and my parents kept saying “why are you listening to that long
hair?” Long hair is a term for classical music. They thought I was
all hoity-toity because I was listening to “classical music.” I’m like,
Barbara Streisand is not classical
music! [laughs] But to them it was because it wasn’t Tennessee Ernie Ford
and Theresa Brewer and all those banjo playing singers.

I knew this was Barbara’s 70th birthday and all the stars just
aligned. This year is J*Company’s 20th anniversary, my 40th
birthday, it is her 70th birthday, it is my Executive Producer’s 50th
birthday. Clearly, something is telling me this is the right time to do
it. And everything just sort of came about as it should have. It
was a relatively easy season to put together it just sort of laid itself out in
front of me. And when I presented it to my committee, they said great without
even a bat of an eye. I mean she’s sort of the patron saint of Judaism
... if there is one [laughs]!

This season: Which show do you think
will be the most fun? Which will be the most challenging?

Well, the most fun is going to be Hello,
Dolly! It just lends itself to it. With a Jerry Herman score,
how can you go wrong!? He’s brilliant. I got to meet him in New
York when they were doing his show Showtune
and I was like, “I love you!” [laughs] He was the nicest man. As
far as the most challenging, I think probably the other three shows have their
own challenges. Funny Girl is
just massive. There is nothing small about it and there’s no way to do it
small. Yentl has its own
challenges in that the subject matter is on the heavy side and it’s a little
adult. So we have to really watch how we handle this with our 10-18 year
olds. And then Gypsy has its
own challenges as well because - in my eyes - I see it as this beautiful story
about a mother and her daughters and how everything changes around them.
But, I think in many ways, the parents see
Gypsy as just a show about strippers. And that’s not what it is about. So my own work with that will be to
present it in a way that people will come to see it.

Where would you like to see J*Company
in 5-10 years from now?

I hope that we continue to grow. I would love more than ever to have a
blackbox theatre. Because our space here is a large 500 seat theatre, I
would love to be able to do some more intimate plays that really aren’t these
huge mongo musicals. We could do plays like The Laramie Project. And we could do some darker, more
intimate things. And I would love to at some point - when our building
isn’t bursting at the seams - put together a conservatory training program for
our kids. Because education is so key to me. I think many times youth
theatres are created for the wrong reasons: either as easy pocket money or as
easy ways to promote a director’s artistic vision and feed their ego.
Those are not reasons to create a children’s theatre. In my opinion, the
reason for children’s theatre is to help young people grow and to educate them
in what they’re doing. So, to have a conservatory here to train these
young people to help them grow in theatre and in other arts would be so
amazing.

Friday, October 26, 2012

My partner and I met in 2000, just before the 9/11 attacks, and we were
living in Brooklyn just over the river. When the towers fell – we could
see the towers from our apartment window – the whole scheme of New York
changed. And having been there for so many years, I felt it was time for
me to find something different, something that really gives me some fulfillment
instead of living from paycheck to paycheck and going from show to show and
waiting tables in between.

My partner was getting a little disenchanted with New York as well. He
said if he ever moved away, San Francisco and San Diego were the only places he
would ever go. So, we flew out here the summer after the 9/11 attacks and
I got off the plane and said, “I’m home.” And I never thought I would be
a “California person” because I had never been to California and always thought
of California as that fake, botox-filled place and it drove me a little batty
to think of it. But when I stepped off the plane in San Diego, I thought
“wow this has so much potential and there is so much already here I wanted to
be a part of.”

That being said, that year I decided I would come out for pilot season
because I had my SAG card and my AFTRA card, so I thought I’d sort of feel it
out and see what’s going on. And I remember I was taking an acting class
I can’t remember exactly what the scene was but I was paired up with this
beautiful lady with beautiful red hair and we were doing this scene about her
father having raped her. It was a very emotional scene and she was doing
the lines like she was in a hamburger commercial. I, on the other hand,
was really getting into it and so the instructor stopped us halfway through and
she – pointing to me - goes, “you, you’re from New York right? We don’t
do that here in LA.” And I about fell out of my chair. That’s when
I knew LA is not the place for me. [laughs] Perhaps San Francisco
and San Diego were better options.

Then my partner got a great job working at Rady Children’s Hospital and so
we came out here to San Diego. I had no prospects and I was very lucky
Alan Ziter at the SD Performing Arts League hired me as a temp doing office
management and then within the next few years I became member services
director. It was the perfect way to jump into the theatre scene here
because I got to know everybody in town. Then, Becky Cherlin Baird - who
was the artistic director at the J*Company before me - was leaving the job to
start a family and I happened to see her at a taping at NBC. I told her,
“I want your job …what do I need to do?” And she said give me your resume
and we’ll see what happens. So I went through a bazillion different
interviews and I was very lucky to be given this, my dream job.

That’s great. What year did you
start working here?

2006 was my first year here.

Joey in rehearsal for "Fiddler on the Roof" in 2010.

Take me through the process you go
through selecting musicals for each season. Other than being
kid-friendly, what do you look for when choosing shows?

I have a fantastic, amazing committee that’s an integral part of the
J*Company and I have one of the most amazing Executive Producers you could ever
ask for, Monica Handler Penner. I bring things to her that I might be a
little weary of. Inevitably, it always comes around to Monica asking me
if I think this is right for our children. And if I say “yes,” she says
“I trust you and I know it will be great.” So, it is wonderful that she
trusts me, as does my committee and the Board of Directors and the Executive
Staff here.

I think I’ve worked very hard to gain that trust. I mean, they still
wonder sometimes [laughs] but every year they are very pleased with the
outcome. And I’m very proud to say that for the first 13 years here, they
were in the red trying to establish themselves and ever since I walked in the
door I’m so proud to say that we’ve been in the black. And we’ve never
looked back. And or budget gets bigger every year and we grow with the
numbers of our kids and our audiences and it is very exciting.

Friday, October 19, 2012

Joey Landwehr has been the Artistic Director for J*Company Youth Theatre for
the past six years, putting his innovative artistic stamp on the theatre
company’s award winning and ambitious musicals. Prior to his tenure as
head of the “J*Co” (as it is affectionately referred to by many), Joey worked
for several years as a professional actor and director in New York City,
working on and off Broadway, singing and dancing on national tours, performing
in regional theatre, and even soloing at Carnegie Hall. He’s trained with
some of the biggest names in the biz, including Betty Buckley, Marcel Marceau,
Twyla Tharpe and Patti LuPone, and has had the privilege of working with such
greats as Phyllis Diller, Sam Harris, Kristin Chenoweth, Victoria Mallory, Joel
Grey, Kaye Ballard, Michael Feinstein and the late Howard Keel. As Joey
gets ready to lead his youth theatre company into its 20th Season (a tribute to
the legendary Barbara Streisand), he sat down with me to chat about his
childhood growing up in the backwoods of St. Louis, his reasons for moving to
San Diego, his process for putting together the company’s “Streisand Season,”
and his hopes and dreams for the future of J*Company.

Joey Landwehr

How does a young boy growing up in
rural Missouri get involved in musical theatre?

Well, growing up in a rural town in Missouri, I was planning to be a
minister. Especially when you get to know me, you’ll be, “like,
what!?!” [Laughs] I think most of it was because that’s what my
mother wanted and I wanted to please her. I went to Johnson Bible College
in Knoxville, TN in between my junior and senior year of high school and it was
an experience I’ll never forget. I was there and I was thinking, “this is
beautiful, but I don’t really know why I’m here.” Then I realized half
way through that I didn’t really want to preach the word, I just wanted to be
on stage and tell people what to do! [laughs] I always loved
theatre and I was always singing in church but I never thought of it as an
actual job or a career. It wasn’t until I was a junior in high school
that I went, oh there’s a whole genre and there’s something you can do onstage.
And that’s when I discovered theatre and realized that I had this love
for it.

Growing up, I was a rotund boy with a 44 inch waist, weighing about 260
lbs. And my sister was going on a date with a guy that knew John Goodman
and they knew I was starting to get into theatre so they introduced me to
him. I asked him if this is something I want to pursue, what should I do
and where do I go? And he said the first thing you need to do is lose the
weight. And literally, that summer I went from 260 lbs to 170lbs.
He was such an inspiration. He spoke so eloquently and I remember his
thunderous laugher. He was so jovial and wonderful and that’s when I
started thinking maybe this is something I could do.

I went to undergrad at a little liberal arts college and thought I would
have teaching as a background and something to fall back on and then I realized
no, if I’m going to do this I need to go full out. I wanted to experience
it all the way or not experience it at all. So I just jumped in with both
feet and never looked back.

I have to assume from your impressive
bio that you’ve spent a lot of time in New York. How many years were you
there? Did you get to do any Broadway or Off-Broadway shows? What’s
the most important lesson or piece of advice you took away from your time in
the Big Apple?

I was in New York from 1997-2003. On Broadway, I did a little stint in
The Secret Garden and then did the
national tour which was a lot of fun. I also did the national tour of the
The Wizard of Oz with Phyllis Diller
and the national tour of George M with
Joel Grey. I also took classes from Betty Buckley. I had already
been through undergrad and grad school at Ohio State and when I burst onto the
New York scene, I didn’t know where to start. I discovered that Betty was
giving acting classes and I said I just want to try this out and see if I’m
missing something that I didn’t learn in college. She was such an incredible
teacher that I took classes from her for three years. She taught me so
much about the process of theatre
much more than the product.
Whereas in college, I think they were getting me ready for the product of
theatre: how to get the show and how to market myself. Whereas Betty
taught me to find the underlying aspects of theatre, the exciting parts where
you could really delve into characters.

Thursday, October 11, 2012

While there are no visible lines drawn anywhere on
the Mo`olelo stage, “Kita y Fernanda,” the final play in the socially-conscious
theatre company’s 2012 season, has a lot to say about living life on two
different sides of a border.

Gabriela Trigo and Cynthia Bastidas. Photo by Crissy Pascual.

Perhaps it is no coincidence, then, that the play
begins in a large crowd – a Chicago rally for immigrant rights – in which we
meet the title characters of the play, Kita and Fernanda, as adult
30-somethings just trying to “fit in” to the American way of life while still
fighting for the rights of those outsiders on the “other” sides of our national
borders.After decades apart, these two
women finally see each other, or at least they think they see each other, but
ultimately get lost in the crowd and don’t connect.On the surface, it seems like a trite way to
begin a poignant play about two girls’ sweeping bicultural journey from
childhood friends to more cynical, knowing adults.But when we finally see how this remarkable
journey finally ends, in a gripping final scene that will tear at your heart
and leave you in tears, it all makes complete sense.

Olivia Espinosa and Cynthia Bastidas. Photo by Crissy Pascual.

While Kita and Fernanda appear to share quite a bit
– they are both Mexican nationals living in the U.S. with mothers who don’t
speak a word of English – we begin to see they couldn’t be more different.As we constantly flashback from the
modern-day rally to various scenes in their childhood, we get more than
just a few glimpses into the many borders that divide them.Fernanda (a dynamic Gabriela Trigo) is the privileged
daughter of a rich Mexican family living in McAllen, Texas, who believes in the
power of learning English, the importance of fitting in, and the essential
commodity of blinged-out Barbie dolls.While she and her overly medicated and agoraphobic mother Doña (a
polished and poised Melba Novoa) are legal immigrants, they remain trapped as
prisoners in their lavish Texas mansion – a simple plywood box set by scenic
designer David F. Weiner – without any connection to the outside,
English-speaking world.Their only link
to humanity is through their live-in maid, a poor, undocumented immigrant named
Concha (a warm Olivia Espinosa, who does triple duty as hilarious Valley girl
Jessica and stoned out beach bum Chela) and her daughter, Kita (a courageous
Cynthia Bastidas).Kita, of course, is a
fierce firecracker who is proud of her hard-working, Spanish-speaking heritage
and pooh-poohs the Barbies in favor of Cabbage Patch dolls.

Through the course of their difficult and divided
friendship, Kita and Fernanda do share a number of funny and heartfelt
moments.That’s largely due to the perfectly
poignant writing of playwright Tanya Saracho, who knows how to capture the
essence of her four characters with equal parts humor and humanity.True, there is a significant amount of
dialogue in Spanish (about a third of the play, with one entire scene
exclusively “en Español”), but thanks to Seema Sueko and Robert Castro’s smart
and sensitive direction, it is easy to surrender to the Spanish and still
understand exactly what is going on.And, if there are still some scenes that leave you a little lost, well,
that is part of the playwright’s point: to put us in the shoes of the outsider
and make us feel the uneasiness and confusion of being a non-English speaking
minority in America.

Cynthia Bastidas and Gabriela Trigo. Photo by Crissy Pascual.

At the end of the play, there’s a lot to think
about.And in Mo`olelo’s beautifully
crafted and brilliantly acted production, there’s also a lot to admire and
enjoy.“Kita y Fernanda” is an
experience like no other: it is a whirlwind journey that will sweep you off
your feet, tug relentlessly at your heartstrings, make you laugh out loud, and
shake your moral and intellectual core.It is a must-see for any theatre-goer who wants to be moved, inspired,
and challenged.

Things
to know before you go: Kita y Fernanda presented by Mo`olelo
Performing Arts Company plays at The 10th Avenue Theatre through
October 21, 2012.Running time is 90
minutes with no intermission.For more
information or to purchase tickets, call (619) 342-7395 or visit
www.moolelo.net.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

This
past weekend, I had the pleasure of seeing two very unconventional pieces of
theatre.One was a wild ride and the
other was a wacky one.Here are my
reviews of the Broadway-bound premiere of “Jekyll and Hyde” at Broadway San
Diego and the rolling premiere of “The Exit Interview” at San Diego REP.

“Jekyll
& Hyde” a Wild Ride

He’s
a tough one to like, that Dr. Jekyll. So is his evil alter ego, Edward Hyde.

The
same can be said for the new Broadway-bound musical that unites the two prickly
personalities under one title.The Nederlander-produced
“Jekyll and Hyde,” which kicked off its multi-city tour here in San Diego
before it ends up on the Great White Way in 2013, definitely has its mood
swings.At times, it can be thrilling
and electrifying with its soaring anthems and incredible voices, thanks largely
to the devilish machinations of Tony Award nominee Constantine Maroulis and the
raspy, earthy tones of Grammy-nominated R&B Superstar Deborah Cox.But then, the whole thing kind of derails in
parts when the propulsive (though mostly unmemorable) new Frank Wildhorn score
achieves ear-shattering levels and the ensemble cast screams through
incomprehensible lyrics, all the while larger-than-life projections of fire
engulf the stage.It is those moments
that are the hardest to bear, and one can only wonder what purpose they are to
serve here.Perhaps they are intended to
add an edgy, rock-concert vibe to the proceedings, or perhaps they are meant to
add more melodrama to an already overly self-indulgent spectacle.Or perhaps they are just experimental filler.

Regardless,
there are still some redeeming elements in this breakthrough revival, which
itself is quite different than the original 1990 concept album (featuring Colm
Wilkinson and Linda Eder) and the original Broadway production (which played
the Plymouth Theatre from 1997-2001, featuring Robert Cuccioli and Linda Eder).The story, which is supposed to be based on
the acclaimed Robert Louis Stevenson novella about a London doctor who
accidentally unleashes his evil alternate persona while trying to cure his
father’s illness, has shifted focus here.Now, the plot features the five members of the Board of Directors at a
London hospital: a snide bishop (David Benoit), a foolish general (Aaron
Ramey), a righteous Lord (Brian Gallagher), a clueless Lady (Blair Ross), and a
Sir (Mel Johnson, Jr.). As we see them
pompously perched on their thrones evenly spaced across the stage proscenium –
some evocative staging by Broadway director and Old Globe favorite Jeff Calhoun
– there’s an almost palpable sense of revenge bubbling in the “good” doctor’s
veins as his proposal to use a new serum on human subjects is flatly
denied.

Instead,
the “good” doctor takes matters into his own hands (or is it veins?) as he
returns to his laboratory and hooks himself up to some uber-cool,
color-changing tubes filled with enough of a mysterious bubbly potion to
completely alter his entire sense of self.The spectacles come off, the hair grows long and unruly, and the murder-hungry
Hyde emerges ready to seek revenge.It
is only a matter of a few bloody minutes - in a heart-pounding Act 2 opener - before
we see the same Board of Directors get disposed of one by one, eventually perched
up on their deathbeds in place of their thrones.Fortunately, that’s not all there is to the
story (or else it would make for a very short second act!).There’s a much-needed second plotline that involves
Jekyll’s soon to be wife, a pure-as-snow Emma Carew (a gloriously voiced Teal
Wicks) and the other woman in the doctor’s life, his lustful prostitute Lucy (a
gritty Deborah Cox).While this intriguing
love triangle ends up going nowhere very quickly, it at least provides for some
of the show’s best songs: a soaring “This is the Moment” in Act 1 and a
stirring “In His Eyes” in Act 2.

Much
of the show’s edgy steampunk vibe is sharply enhanced by its technical wizardry.Kudos to scenic designer Tobin Ost who works
wonders constructing a dark, barren, and hazy feel to the proceedings, with
massive cinematic set pieces all framed by a moving proscenium arch outlined in
bold neon lights.Ost also provides some
exquisite high-society get-ups that are appropriate for 19th century
London and his entire design scheme is eerily lit by Jeff Croiter’s lights and
set in motion by Daniel Brodie’s splashy projections. Sound designer Ken Travis keeps it all surprisingly
well balanced, though there are times that the shrill-sounding 11-piece
orchestra clashes with the screaming and screechy voices to effect a few “nails
on a chalkboard” moments.

So,
much like its dually conflicted title character, there are both “good” and
“bad” elements of this “Jekyll & Hyde.”With explosive voices, over-the-top characters, and dynamic staging, it
is probably best to just surrender to this overdone, self-indulgent spectacle and
enjoy its dark and wild side.

“The
Exit Interview” a Wacky Ride

What
do you get when you mix together a couple of socially and politically savvy cheerleaders,
a slick Fox News reporter with a penchant for too much makeup, a well-meaning
but smug HR director grappling with the age old question of “why, God, why?”,
two German mothers engaged in endless “small talk,” an oboe-obsessed
ex-girlfriend with a fanatical right-wing mother, a product-placement pushing
priest, and an agnostic university professor who specializes in the works of
Bertolt Brecht?

Well,
in the opinion of those of us who see plays for their logical progression and
thoughtful/insightful exploration of ideas via well-timed thematic arcs, the
short answer would be a total theatrical mess.But
in the case of “The Exit Interview,” William Missouri Down’s satirical
examination of faith and fate in the 21st century, things don’t come
off as terribly disorganized as they sound.Okay, perhaps they do, but that’s part of the point here.You
see, Down’s takes a Brechtian approach to his storytelling, allowing for a
number of dramatic turns in which he (shown via video feed riding his horse or
working in his “office” smack dab in the middle of a forest somewhere in the
Midwest) stops the show and changes the script as it is being performed, frequently
inserting totally random scenes in Brecht’s native Germanic tongue.And, in order to fully expose the process
rather than the product, Downs ensures that the stagehands are always visible
and that they enact intentionally clumsy and abrupt scene changes.Lucky for us, in case we need any help with
this Brechtian break away from “realism,” we have an expert in the field,
fictional college professor Dick Fig (an easygoing Herbert Siguenza) whose exit
interview with HR director Eunice (a hare-brained Linda Libby) tries to provide
some thematic continuity to the entire piece.

The Cast of "The Exit Interview." Courtesy SD REP.

It
all comes together as a wacky series of Saturday Night Live comedy sketches,
thanks to the (mostly) funny material and absurd characters provided by Downs,
the spitfire direction by REP Co-Founder and Artistic Director Sam Woodhouse,
and the ace cast of six actors who seamlessly morph into a number of kooky
supporting characters that keep the comedic charade going.Particularly impressive are JoAnne Glover and
Lisel Gorell-Getz who work their pom-poms while cheering about existential
angst; Fran Gercke as a parish priest who pushes the divine enjoyment of Diet
Coke while, well, it is not quite clear what his role in the show is; and Nick
Cagle as a preening Fox News reporter who is only concerned about his image…and
about pushing his right-wing agenda.

Without
a doubt, you will leave the theatre scratching your head and wondering “what
does it all mean?”And that’s the point
of this world premiere piece, which is the second of five “rolling” premieres
which are occurring all over the U.S. under the auspices of the National New
Play Network.In true Brechtian fashion,
it’s not about the messy process of the play itself: it’s about the meaningful
discussions about religion, sex, and politics that it engenders on the car ride
home.

So,
gather your most liberal and intellectual of friends and get ready to take
in all the craziness!

Things to know before you go:
Jekyll & Hyde presented by Broadway San Diego played
at The San Diego Civic Theatre at 3rd and B Street from October 2 –
7, 2012.Running time was 2 hours and 30
minutes with a 20 minute intermission.Ticket
prices vary.For more information and to
purchase tickets, visit TicketMaster.com, call (888) 937-8995, or visit
www.BroadwaySD.com.

Things to know before you go: The
Exit Interview presented by San Diego REP plays in the
Lyceum Space at Lyceum Theatre through October 21, 2012.Running time is 2 hours 20 minutes with one
15 minute intermission.For more
information or to purchase tickets, call (619) 544-1000 or visit www.sdrep.org.

Saturday, October 6, 2012

Check
out my interview with Joey Landwehr ("Everything's coming up Streisand") as his J*Company prepares to kick off the
first production of their “Streisand Season” on October 19.In our conversation, Joey and I talked about
his upbringing in Missouri, his time spent “pounding the pavement” in NYC, his transition
here to San Diego, and his process of putting together the J*Company’s 20th
Anniversary Season.The interview (on
page 4) is in the current edition of Gay San Diego, which is on newsstands now!

Friday, October 5, 2012

Kathy and Marie Ertel, project director for the city of Vista and
supervisor of the construction of the new Moonlight Amphitheatre stage
house, which was completed in 2009. Photo by Pam
Kragen.

Shifting
gears a bit, how did you meet your husband, Robert C. Brombacher, DDS?

I was living in Oceanside and one of my friends was
a dental hygienist.She and I would go
jogging and then we ended up having potlucks and things with our friends and colleagues,
and that’s how I met my husband - through her - because she worked with him as
a dentist.

My husband is originally from LA, went to San
Francisco Dental School, and he and his partner started their dental practice
here in Vista because of his cousin who lived in Encinitas at the time.His cousin had said this is a beautiful area,
you should think about it, come down and drive around, see where all the golf
courses are (my husband was a golfer from when he was age 13), etc.And so he came down because of family and
relocated here to start his business.

Is
he involved in the Moonlight business at all?

At one time, he was the treasurer of the Vista
Foundation (which was the original nonprofit that built the theatre and they
are now known as the Moonlight Cultural Foundation).He actually acted in the first show we ever
did up here: “Oliver!”He was convinced
to do the role of Dr. Grimwig, which is a tiny role.When Oliver passes out and gets sick, he is
taken in by a wealthy man who brings the doctor in to see how Oliver is
doing.And that was a role that my
husband took on because I was completely out of men who would volunteer to do
the role! [laughs]So, he did that one role
and he said “I’ve had enough.I now know
what it takes and I appreciate it, but I do not need to be onstage ever again!”[laughs]And from then on, he supported us from backstage, as a corporate sponsor,
as a patron, and on our Board.

As
the founder and artistic director of Moonlight, what achievement or production
during your 32 year tenure are you most proud of?

Wow…that’s a hard one.It’s a tie for “Les Miserables” and “Ragtime.”Both of them were acquired as productions
that had not been produced by regional musical theatre in our area before.With “Les Miserables” we went in on it with
another theatre company in northern California to co-build … they actually
built the set and sent it down and we rented the turntable to make everything
work.

Moonlight's "Les Miz" in 2008. Photo courtesy of Ken Jacques.

So
“Les Miz” you would say is more of a technical achievement…

Yes, it was a technical achievement.And then “Ragtime” was just a remarkable show
to be able to produce.Again,
collaboration has been something that I’m really proud of.For that show, we collaborated with Musical
Theatre of Wichita to get a touring set brought through.

What
was particularly special about “Ragtime”?Would you say it’s the biggest artistic achievement of all the shows
that you’ve done?

I think it was one of the big ones for us.In terms of recognition of the work and we
had an incredible artistic team.Our
choreographer, Paul David Bryant, had done the show on Broadway with the
original artistic cast and sat through all the sessions with Graciela Daniele
about the origins of the music and the dance.And it is just a beautiful piece of theatre.So to have the chance to do that with an
incredible artistic and technical team … it was a glorious time of creation.

Moonlight's "Ragtime" in 2002. Photo by Moonlight Archives.

Where
do you hope to see Moonlight in 10 years from now?

I hope in ten years that Moonlight is very healthy: that
it is continuing to produce the size musicals that we’ve been able to
produce.And hopefully doing a
combination of beloved classics and premieres of new work.I think every theatre has to keep bringing in
new work, new titles, and new thinking to the forefront in order to
evolve.Theatre needs to evolve with the
society.What we were doing 10 and 15
years ago and what our audiences most wanted to see was not what they’re
wanting to see right now.Our audiences
want to see the new titles, but they also want to see beloved favorites like
“Fiddler on the Roof” and “Anything Goes.”To get a younger audience in, we need to do our “Legally Blonde's", we
need to do a very different, younger version of “Sweeney Todd.”I very much believe that the company needs to
stay flexible.And sometimes that means
doing – as we did last year – a couple of very small shows in order to make
your budget work.It is part of being in
these economic times and if you call it recession or just a bump in the road … it’s
just what everyone goes through. So I
hope that Moonlight will be the theatre that is not closing because we weren’t
thinking ahead and because we weren’t budget conscious.And that is not to say that any theatre wants
to be in that position.It’s just that
smart choices have to be made everywhere.

I also hope there will be more youth theatre that is
healthy in this community and that Moonlight will continue to support
that.Kids are both our audience members
and our performers of tomorrow.And for
that, you have to have arts education, you have to have young people in fine
programs in dance and voice and such.I
hope that will continue to grow and flourish and feed what Moonlight is.

Where
do you hope to see yourself in 10 years from now?

I hope to continue to be engaged in the action of
producing theatre.It may not be at this
theatre, but I have some titles that I have my eye on that I’d like to be
engaged with.I also want to support Moonlight
in any way I can, whether that means serving on the Board of the Moonlight
Cultural Foundation or fundraising or speaking in the community … I want to be
an advocate for Moonlight.And possibly
for other arts organizations in our County.

Thank
you, Kathy, for your time and talent in bringing the magic of musical theatre
via Moonlight!

About The Drama King

Dr. Donnie Matsuda recently moved to San Diego from the SF Bay Area. He earned his bachelor's degree in Human Biology from Stanford University, where he founded and served as editor-in-chief of the Stanford Undergraduate Research Journal. He went on to earn an M.D. from Stanford's School of Medicine and he has come to San Diego to start a new life and a new career path.
Donnie's love affair with the theatre began at the age of 8 when he started singing and dancing with Galena Street East Productions. Since then he has played many roles in the Bay Area theatre scene, including choreographer, assistant director, dance captain, tech director, propmaster, arts administrator, and of course, performer. He is enjoying his newest role as theatre critic and is excited to be part of the San Diego theatre community.
Feel free to contact Donnie via e-mail at: doctordonnie1@gmail.com